Application and guidance

1. How to register
2. Who needs to register
3. How to express an interest
4. The Online questions
5. How to access the Application documents
6. Unique Reference Number
7. How to label your documents
8. How to submit/"publish" documents
9. Submitting multiple bids
10. Technical difficulties
11. Primary contact
12. Questions

How to register

• In order to register, you need to complete a short series of questions directly onto the web portal. These questions cover organisation details, your individual user details and project information.
• You will then receive an email from Bravo to the email address you have included in your Registration details - this will include a 10 digit password.
  Please note: that it is the lead employer that must create the account and submit the bid. 
  

Register > Bravo Web Portal

Who needs to register

• It is the lead employer(s) that need to register, express an interest and submit the bid on the e-tendering portal. Applications submitted on behalf of the employer by another organisation will not be accepted.

  Please note that the status of the organisation leading and submitting the bid will form part of the initial eligibility check.

How to express an interest

• You need to express an interest in order to access the online questions and application form.
• You must express an interest by 13.00 on the 11 March in order to gain access to the application process and be able to bid, as specified in the Prospectus and Guidance for Applicants document.
• After receiving your email from Bravo you first need to re log-into the BIS e-tendering portal using your username and password. You will immediately be asked to change your password.
• After changing your password you will be taken to the main page, where you should click on "PQQs Open to all Suppliers" (PQQ stands for Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) which will take you to the EOP Round 2 Application process.
• You can then click to "Express an Interest" which moves the Application process into My PQQs.
• In My PQQs you will have access to the online questions and can download the application documents.
  

The Online questions

• These include a series of mandatory questions (indicated by *)  about your project, and statements regarding equality, eligibility etc. Each text based question in this section has a locked in character limit of 2000 characters. You can either skip these questions at this stage and move on to access the downloadable application form, or fill them in at this point.
• You will be able to revisit these questions and change the answers at any point before the deadline at 13.00 on the 28th March.
• Even if you "Publish" (submit) the responses, you will still be able to "un-publish" and make any changes prior to the deadline. Note, however, that answers must be published by the deadline for applications to be considered. Please note that each subsequent publication overwrites all previous ones.
  

How to access the Application documents

• In My PQQs you will have access to and can download the application form - the word document and excel workbook.
• There is a version of both for full bids and for outline bids. Please ensure you are completing the correct form depending on whether your bid is a full or outline bid.
  

Unique Reference Number

• After "expressing an interest" you will be emailed a Unique Reference Number (URN). You should receive your URN within 5 working days of expressing an interest.
• Please note this will be sent to the email provided in the registration process and will originate from the online message board housed within the application process.
• You will need to quote this URN on all application documents where requested, as well as in any correspondence concerning your application.
  

How to label your documents

• When you upload and submit your documents, please title them in the following format: "URN, project name, part 1" for the word application form, and "URN, project name, part 2" for the excel workbook.
  

How to submit/"publish" documents

• You can submit your bid anytime before the deadline, after which your application will not be considered.
• Whilst you can "publish" your bids before the deadline, this will not be considered final until the deadline has passed.
• Should you subsequently want to update your bid, you can un-publish and then re-submit it later on. Please note that this will overwrite the previous submission. You should save a copy of your bid outside of Bravo to ensure no loss through accidental overwriting.
  

Submitting multiple bids

• There is no limit on the number of bids an employer can submit.
• However, for each bid submitted from the same lead organisation you will need to register and create a new account. Please create any additional accounts with the organisation name, as before, followed by a "2", to indicate it is a second bid from the same organisation. (Please follow the same process if submitting more than 2 bids, using "Organisation name 3" etc.) 
• After expressing an interest and receiving your URN you should use it to identify each bid separately. 
• Please note: if you do not create a separate account for each bid, each subsequent submission using the same account will overwrite the previous submission.
  

Technical difficulties

• If at any time during the Application process you experience technical difficulties or require technical assistance, you should contact the portal helpdesk at help@bravosolution.co.uk, supplying a "screen dump" or "screen shot" depicting any error messages you have received. 
• Instructions on how to create a "screen shot" can be found at: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-xp/help/setup/take-a-screen-shot.
• You should note that the email address above will not be able to answer questions about the bid and/or process.
  

Primary contact

• Please note we will use the person specified in the registration process as our primary contact during the bid process. This person should be from the lead employer. Please update us straight away if the primary contact or their details change.
• If you wish to change any part of your registration details, including the primary contact, please email help@bravosolution.co.uk through the email address supplied when registering. Applicants will need to state their name, organisation, URN and the changes they wish to make. 
  

Questions

• If you have questions that are not of a technical nature, then please submit these through the online message board available through the e-tendering portal, quoting your URN if the question relates to your application.
• We will make the question and answer available, anonymising as necessary, through the FAQs section on the UKCES website.  
  

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